British expat sets snake record in South Africa

A man from Sussex has set a peculiar new world record in South Africa - being locked in a room with 40 venomous snakes for 121 days.

David Jones, a 45 year old carpenter, claims to have been obsessed with snakes since catching his first glimpse of a grass snake when he was a young boy.

He then decided to travel to South Africa to break the previous record of 113 days set by South African native Natie Swart. To break the record Mr Jones had to share a small enclosure with a staggering 40 serpents, amongst the 40 there were a number of deadly species including cobras, boomslangs, puff adders and black mambas.

His living quarters were located at the Chameleon Village Reptile Conservation Park in Johannesburg, South Africa, where Jones became somewhat of an attraction himself- visitors to the nature park would come to see him and talk to him through a sliding door. During the night Jones was guarded by watchmen to ensure he didn’t receive a potentially fatal bite in his sleep.

Astonishingly Jones lasted the entire 121 days without receiving a single bite, he even cared for the lethal creatures by feeding them live rodents supplied by the park. Speaking of the experience Jones said: “It was something that I've wanted to do for a long time, although I can't explain why - I just love snakes. Prior to this I used to enjoy spending the day looking for them under logs, catching them and then releasing them.”